User blog comment:Lathagarr Stormgale of Tronn/Q&A/@comment-3094815-20101201185343/@comment-1153441-20101203185719

Neil: First of all I don't want to turn this into a denominational argument, I just want to point something out about what you said, so please don't take offense at what I'm saying. :)

If Jesus built the church on Peter himself, it wouldn't have survived. A few verses later Jesus was calling him "Satan" (if anyone is wondering why then look it up in Matthew 16:21-23). Rather, Jesus would build His church on the confession of who He was. If you look at the original Greek text of the passage of scripture you quoted in the above comment, you will find that the name Peter comes from the Greek word for "rock". But the word for Peter is petros which means "little rock," while the word Jesus used for "rock" when he said, "upon this rock I will build my church" is the Greek word petra which means "a great rock." Peter's confession was the great rock on which Jesus would build the church.

And the keys to the kingdom that Jesus referred to are not a special place that Peter would hold to allow people into heaven and into the church. The gospel is the key into the kingdom. The declaration of who Jesus is and what he did is what opens the door to heaven, allowing others to make the same declaration that will set them free.